In January, Amazon told sellers who use Fulfillment By Amazon that it would stop offering optional, fee-based prep services for sharp objects beginning in April. On Monday, Amazon informed sellers it would stop offering prep services altogether beginning January 1, 2026.
Amazon requires sellers to follow its protocols for preparing and labeling products before sending them to its fulfillment centers. One seller who doesn’t have their own warehouse and relies on Amazon’s prep services said the new policy will crush them. “Just looking for general reactions to it I guess,” the seller wrote in a thread on the Amazon discussion boards on Monday evening. Other sellers discussed the policy change on a thread on LinkedIn.
Sellers shared the following letter Amazon sent them on July 28th:
Hello,
Starting January 1, 2026, we’ll no longer offer prep and item labeling services for Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) shipments in the US store. This change applies to all inventory that is sent to our US FBA service, including inventory that you send directly into FBA as well as inventory from Amazon Warehousing and Distribution (AWD), Amazon Global Logistics (AGL), Amazon SEND, and Supply Chain Portal, when that inventory goes through FBA.
We initially introduced prep services to help protect products during the shipping process. Since then, we’ve seen a significant improvement in seller packaging capabilities and a reduced need for our prep services.
The vast majority of Amazon sellers now handle their own packaging, including prep and item labeling, either on their own, through their own manufacturing partners or through third-party service providers which allows FBA to focus on providing faster and more efficient fulfillment center operations.
To improve operational efficiency that ensures quicker delivery times for customers, we’re no longer planning to offer these prep and item labeling services within FBA.
To help you transition smoothly, here are some options to prep and label your products:
- Do it yourself. To get started, go to Prepare your products for FBA shipping.
- Use a service provider. You may work with your own preferred provider, or leverage the third-party service providers we have vetted for you. To review our vetted providers, go to FBA Prep Providers.
To help reduce your supply chain costs, you can use Ships in Product Packaging for FBA (SIPP) for eligible products, as it can lower prep needs and provide FBA discounts.
When this change takes effect on January 1, all products must be prepped and labeled before sending them to our facilities. This protects your inventory during shipping and ensures accurate processing.
- For shipments created before January 1, we’ll continue to provide prep and item labeling services, even if inventory arrives after that date.
- Shipments created after January 1, that arrive without proper prep and item labeling won’t be eligible for reimbursement if items become damaged or untraceable. For details on our reimbursement policy, go to FBA inventory reimbursement policy.
For more information on the prep services, go to FBA Prep Service.
The Amazon Services team